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Death of Kelly Thomas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
By Brian Hews
This is Breaking News.
An Orange County jury has reached non guilty verdicts in the case of two former Fullerton police officers accused of killing Kelly Thomas, a homeless man during a violent encounter in 2011.
Manuel Ramos and Jay Cicinelli were declared “not guilty” by a jury on Monday afternoon. The two officers were charged with striking Thomas with a baton and a stun gun. Thomas died five days after the incident.
Several protesters have gathered in front of the court house where the jury verdict was reached.
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This was a big risk for the DA, who did the case himself. Will definitely will impact his bid for re-election; and those who followed the trial do not see justice being served. Very hard to guess how the jury found these verdicts! The officers were out of control. It is a loss for public support law enforcement. The next 12-24 hours will tell.
Dean, While I certainly agree this was big political risk for Tony Rackauckas. I definitely believe our justice system should not be politically motivated, however this case certainly was. I also think it shows Mr. Rackauckas is perhaps a better politician than he is a prosecutor. Unfortunately as the DA for Orange County he is also supposed to be a leader for that department. As such he should know the best of his available prosecutor’s to handle such a high profile case. It would appear he in fact does not posses that capability, or his own narcissism prevented him from that making that decision.
D. Lauderdale
A black day for our justice/jury system. If you are homeless and living on the streets you are in big trouble.